I watched the video, and did not hear one tinge of sarcasm in his delivery. He was entirely serious. If not, why his added comment regarding universities? Easy target? Yes. He paints the bullseye with his anti-intellectual stance.

He sounded sarcastic to me. In fact, sarcastic is evident in the quote even without watching the video. He mentioned universities, characterizing them as people who "believe they have the power and knowledge to tell you what to do". It was clearly meant to be derisive. Anti-intellectual? Maybe. But did he mean smart as in, literally, smart, the way most people use it? Obviously not.

I agree that this is not a case of Santorum putting his foot in his mouth. Sadly enough, this is exactly what he meant. It's just another example of how anachronistic his ideology is. His understanding of "true American values" being sustained solely by the Church and the family means that there is no room for non-believers and non-breeders in his vision of a country. Moreover, science, reason and evidence are out the window too. Right back to the Dark Ages! So, nothing new coming from the bubble. Interesting to watch him say it like that, though!